Monday, March 31, 2008

And we had a blast, although it was sort of an ups and downs week. The great things were times of GREAT fellowship. Phillip and Jamie (the couple we stayed with and very dear friends of ours) took us to the Creation Museum, sponsored by Answers in Genesis. What a treat that was! It really was packed out though, being spring break week and all. I was able to pick up Passionate Housewives Desperate for God at the museum gift shop. I've been wanting it, but I've been putting it off. Jamie also took me to this lovely and beautifully feminine tea room called Tea Roses. That, to me, was almost as good as the Creation Museum! Jeremy asked me how the tea room was and I got all excited and said, "oh, we had tea with our own decorative tea pots and ate little sandwiches and quiche and soup...I just loved it...You would have hated it!" It's not a place you'd want to take husbands.

The down parts of the vacation was that we had to take Ethan to the emergency room at Mercy Anderson Hospital while we were in Cincinnati. I forgot his Albuterol for his nebulizer and his chest closed up tight as tight could be. When we took him to the ER, he was really literally writhing in pain and crying. I felt so sorry for him. But the ER saw him right away and got him fixed right up. They were home in just and hour and a half.

The other bad news...the worst news really, was that I started having trouble carrying my unborn while we were there. We drove home Friday the 28th from Cincinnati while I was still having trouble. I don't want to get too graphic, so we'll say that I had something scary happen that night and Jeremy and I went to the ER at Sacred Heart in Pensacola. After sitting there for ever and ever, they finally took me back, and did an ultrasound. My hormone levels from my blood work were good. Though I was at 11 weeks, the baby only measured 6 weeks 4 days and they couldn't find a heartbeat. They sent me home with a diagnosis of "threatened miscarriage" and orders to stay off my feet. I was in the ER for 6 hours, had driven from Cincinnati, and had not slept in ages. I was exhausted. With in 15 hours I was having trouble again. There was no mistake that I was miscarrying. My blood work showed this time that my hormone levels were way down. Another ultrasound showed that my miscarriage was incomplete and I was told to follow up with my OBGYN. Unfortunately, she's on vacation. The nurses at her office said that I could go back to the ER. I am so not willing to do that and I asked if it was okay for me to continue the miscarriage on my own. The nurse said as long as I'm not hemorrhaging and I can manage the pain (which has been difficult) that I can complete the miscarriage on my own.

I think I new in my heart that when I stared having trouble last week that the Lord had already taken my sweet baby up to heaven. Miscarriage has always been one of my biggest fears. I didn't know how I would handle it. I am looking on the positive though...most of the time. My wee baby will never carry the burden of sin. When (s)he stands before God in judgment, he'll be able to say that he is a sinner because he was made of flesh, but that he never committed sin. He'll never have to deal with sickness or pain...or a spanking! When I think about these things I cry tears of joy. I just ask for prayer as I continue my miscarriage, because it's hard to go through.

And said, Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return thither: the LORD gave, and the LORD hath taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD --Job 1:21

Thursday, March 20, 2008

Since our family is in the lawn and garden business, we don't get to take vacation during the summer. This year our vacation is in the early spring. We'll be headed off to Cincinnati, OH to see our very dearest friends in this world, Phillip and Jamie. We'll be driving all the way in one day with all the children. I'm not too worried about the boys because they are very used to long car rides and don't whine about sitting in a car all day. Lydia on the other hand, gets pretty fussy when she's in the car all day. Please pray for our safety on this very long trip. By Google's reckoning, the trip is 679 miles and will take 10 hours and 22 minutes. Of course we have three meals to fit in that time and a ton of bathroom stops and stops for Lydia to stretch her legs and all, so who knows how long that will take!

We plan on leaving Saturday, March 22 and returning on Friday March 28.

Thursday, March 13, 2008

Praise the Lord for saving one of our youth boys last night. His dad was saved late last year. His step mom was saved at our watchnight service this year. Jeremy and I (and I'm sure many others) have been praying for J. G. (remember, I use only initials for the youth kids) since they started coming to our church. Praises be to God for his moving lately in our church.

We also have praises for the recent salvation of someone who has been in our prayers for literally years. Thank you Lord for saving Gary Wiggins. Gary's mother has been faithful to the Lord for a long time. It's good to see God moving in Gary's life.

Another who has recently been saved is Robert G. Hallelujah! God still draws people. Bro. Robert is the uncle of J. G. (mentioned first). I love to see whole families come to Christ.

Acts 16: 25-34

And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God: and the prisoners heard them. And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken: and immediately all the doors were opened, and every one’s bands were loosed.And the keeper of the prison awaking out of his sleep, and seeing the prison doors open, he drew out his sword, and would have killed himself, supposing that the prisoners had been fled.But Paul cried with a loud voice, saying, Do thyself no harm: for we are all here.Then he called for a light, and sprang in, and came trembling, and fell down before Paul and Silas,And brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved?And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.And they spake unto him the word of the Lord, and to all that were in his house.And he took them the same hour of the night, and washed their stripes; and was baptized, he and all his, straightway.And when he had brought them into his house, he set meat before them, and rejoiced, believing in God with all his house.

If homeschooling is illegal in California, then the Christian and private secular schools are sure to be the next in the cross hairs of the California courts. Then the trend is sure to trickle down to every corner of the nation.

I'm just beginning on my homeschool journey with my K4 son. Half of me is enraged and half of me is heartbroken that the possibility exists that I may not be able to continue this journey.

If you homeschool, Christian school, private school, or just tired of the courts stripping us of liberty after liberty, PLEASE sign this petition.

A new study from the Mayo Clinic has concluded that there is "a measurable and statistically significant" connection between the pill and pre-menopausal breast cancer, re-enforcing the recent classification of oral contraceptives as Type 1 carcinogens.

Dr. Kahlenborn focused on the younger, pre-menopausal women who had been on the pill before having their first child. He found 21 of 23 studies showed a connection between the pill and cancer, something that certainly should be alarming women.

Most of the women that I've talked to about this subject (keeping the conversation within tact and decorum) are just as scared to death of The Pill as I am. To those who may be reading and use OC's, please take time to pray about continuing their use. Also, I found this information on natural birth control helpful.

The weekend in our house begins Saturday afternoon at about 12:30 and ends Monday evening. My husband works half a day on Saturday and is off Sunday and Monday. Therefore, our school week is Tuesday through Saturday. So don't be confused when Monday is seen as the weekend!

Saturday afternoon we had an outing scheduled for the teenagers. We took them to play laser tag in Orange Beach, AL. It's quite a drive, but it's the closest. It was very cold (for the beach) which is great! We don't take them down there after April because of the "swimsuits" start coming out (it's quoted because I don't see, for the life of me, why you need something like that just to swim!). We had a fantastic time in the Lord. It was good to see our young people fellowshipping with each other. We're still praying for Z. B. (not sure how parents feel about names on the web, so...) who was sick. He tried to come but as his older brother was driving him to the church, he had to stop and pull over for Z. B. if you get what I'm implying. Maybe next time, Z.

Sunday was a great day at the Lord's house. Sunday morning we had children's church with help from teenager O. N. She was a lot of help...but somehow managed to find an other work to do during the kid's song service. I think she may feel a bit silly singing and doing hand-motions to the kids songs. I'll have to get her on that one. :) Praise the Lord for the attentiveness of the kids as my husband preached. His lesson was on Nebuchadnezzar's dream. Oh, it was also a blessing that Sunday evening, my dear friend Melissa's kids brought beautiful artwork for me and proclaimed that I was their favorite grown-up. It does make me smile, but I know really that Jeremy is their favorite grown-up.

Sunday evening we had one of our missionaries, Bro. Cory Ricker, who came in to report on the work with the deaf in Peru. With a new prayer card, I had the link to his website. Pastor preached a great message, but I'm sad to say that I wasn't able to get all of it. Between having to comfort Lydia, who wanted to fight sleep, and battling my morning sickness (evening sickness?) I wasn't able to take much in. I'm disappointed to say that, but it's the truth.

Monday was spent mostly in the garden. We now have all the seeds down. I'm also sporting a nice sunburn. Even in Florida, most people don't get sunburned during the first part of March. But this skin is WHITE! My arms are very itchy today. The kids were all spared though.

Some pictures from school today:

John working on his Bible coloring page.

Ethan working a bit later on his workbook.

And Lydia coloring also. I'm embarrassed to admit she's still in her pajamas and looking rather sleepy.

Wednesday, March 5, 2008

Just a little excited that I got music to play on my blog. I don't always do so well with code and stuff. Well, the song that I'm sharing with everyone is by a family that we know, the Daugherty family. The song (I'm pretty sure) was written by the mother of this family. It's been a little while since we've caught up with them, so my memories are getting sketchy. I'm pretty sure that this family was blessed with nine children, all of which serve the Lord steadfastly today. This song, Train Up a Child, is such a blessing that I still get a little teary eyed even after hearing it a million times. Hope it's a blessing to all who hear.

Tuesday, March 4, 2008

I could really post tons of stuff about yesterday's gardening adventure, but my duties of home beckon. This year, the Lord allowed us to [finally] start a vegetable garden! Jeremy and I have wanted one ever since we moved out here, but didn't have the time or the money to start one up. Well, this year marks our first attempt at a vegetable garden.

Ethan and John "raking" out the grass lingering in the newly tilled ground.

The garden is actually pretty big. Only about half of it is shown in that picture.

Oh, and I did have to do my fair share of the work, too. I was just the only one who could be bothered with cleaning my hands enough to handle the camera!

Here's Lydia "helping." She was so funny-looking sitting down right in the middle of the dark brown dirt! She'd play in it and rub her hands down in it. Most of our yard is covered in grass, weeds and a combination of the two. Oh, and don't mind the dirt around her mouth. I'm sure she ate some of it, but she's no worse off.

I think that's all, but who knows what else could be lurking out there. We also plan on planting some peppers along with some herbs. I lover cooking with fresh herbs, but who can afford to cook with them every time they cook? I'm really praying that the Lord will bless our garden. We're also praying about buying a home canner. The things that we get out of my father-in-law's garden, we usually freeze, some of these things just won't do in the freezer. What could be better than fresh tomatoes in the dead of winter?